Kelly Davis died Wednesday. She was 53. And I am not okay.
I’ve been sitting with the question every person asks when they lose someone taken too soon: Why her? Why now? How is it possible that someone who spent three decades shining a light into San Diego’s darkest corners, jail cells, hospital wards and the quiet suffering of people no one else bothered to see is gone at 53?
I don’t have an answer to that. What I have is a record. And Kelly Davis left one of the most consequential records in the history of San Diego journalism.
She built something that lasted
Kelly helped launch San Diego CityBeat in 2002 and became one of its driving forces. In 2013, she and journalist Dave Maass published a five-part investigative series documenting that San Diego County jails had the highest inmate death rate among California’s largest jail systems and that many of those deaths were preventable. That series won awards, changed policies, led to new suicide prevention training and saved lives that will never know her name…